MB Toronto
Morning Brew: Lines drawn over OneCity, G20 cops protected fence over quelling riot, TTC driver "spoken to" over Ford incident, and food trucks must wait
Another big transit battle is looming at city council and those in positions of influence are beginning to choose sides. Rob Ford and his allies at council are, not surprisingly, against the proposal, but with their numbers dwindling, the vote coming later this summer could be close. This morning, the Globe and Mail reports that several suburban leaders wouldn't replicate the property tax idea in their own areas.
Where do you stand? Obviously, no one likes a tax hike, but is it a necessary evil to ensure we all - drivers, transit riders, cyclists, pedestrians, whatever - get to where we need to go, on time?
A new G20 report says Toronto police failed to prevent a riot because they were too busy guarding the security fence around the meeting site. When they asked for relief to deal with the problem, the RCMP took twelve hours to arrive. The CBC reports that a single officer booked all detainees. Madness.
According to The Star, a TTC streetcar operator received "counseling" after an incident in traffic with Rob Ford. According to the TTC's Brad Ross, the driver left his seat - something operators aren't meant to do - to speak to the mayor, who was presumably in his car. The TTC won't say what was discussed between the pair.
Toronto won't be turning into food truck heaven for a while yet. The licensing and standards committee decided yesterday to further study the idea of allowing mobile food vendors to set up shop in parking lots instead of giving the thumbs up. Some restaurant owners are worried the trucks' low overheads will undermine their business. Salads, nuts and vegetables are now on the menu for existing burger and hot dog stands, though. Yippee!
And finally, we last heard from Diego Bergia in 2010 when saw a demo version of his Toronto graffiti-meets-arcade video game at Magic Pony on Queen West. Now, he's developing the game further with input from a few graffiti legends. Here's the latest Street Fighter 2-inspired clip from the game:
IN OTHER NEWS:
- Blue Jays' rotation needs ace to step up as Angels club Brett Cecil [The Star]
- Security guard stabbed repeatedly underneath Yonge-Dundas Square [Globe and Mail]
- House tips toward neighbour during reno, now faces demolition [The Star]
- Toronto woman pleads not guilty to Holocaust fund fraud [CBC]
- David Chen inspired citizen's arrest powers set to take effect [National Post]
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Photo: "The City" by TimCorbin in the blogTO Flickr Pool.
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Can't they both win?
The advantage is simpler administration aka less costly to operate netting more for transit.
Additionally, and of greatest benefit, a sales tax would capture everyone visiting Toronto not just property owners and renters. This would yield more $$$'s to work with.
The current 'drawing' though needs much work to eliminate the hodge podge of differing transit lines.
Food trucks are purely cash and carry - the food has to be simple and relatively portable. Restaurants are dine-in experiences. Its not at all the same thing. While I would happily go to a food truck for a quick lunch, it would never replace the dine-in restaurant experience for me - it's simply another dining option.
Why these "restaurant owners" associations are so afraid of change is beyond me. Don't forget, these are the same jokers who back in the day, when Toronto was first contemplating a smoking ban in restaurants and bars, complained bitterly to anyone who would listen, that it would destroy their business because people would just stay home or eat at restaurants in Mississauga or Markham if they couldn't smoke in Toronto - which of course, turned out to be a crock. The ban came into effect, and if anything, the industry has prospered since then, mainly because people can go out for a nice meal without smelling like a chimney when they got home.
These "restaurant association" guys are the ultimate "chicken little - the sky is falling" types. They're never run by the folks who own the good restaurants in the city - instead, the "leaders" of these "associations" typically run these crap, hole in the wall joints, that serve lousy food and have bad service and were opened when there were no good places to eat in the City, which is why they always panic over any kind of competition. And of course, they make lots of noise, so City Hall listens to them.
Simple fact is, some of the best food truck cities are also some of the best and most competitive restaurant cities in North America, proving they can co-exist just fine, and probably even complement each other.
These guys are just afraid of change - period. Shame on City Hall for indulging their closed-mindedness.
Yep, these are the folks who claim that since they drive to work they shouldn't have to pay for transit(ignoring the fact that transit pulls hundreds, if not thousands of cars off the road at a time, meaning their commute would be even more miserable without it), or that their taxes are already too high as it is (even though Toronto's property tax rates are WAY lower on average than in the burbs - mainly because the burbs gave tax breaks to companies and developers to attract companies out there and they make up the shortfall from residents).
Personally, I'm not sure that property taxes alone should fund transit expansion - there are other tools at our disposal and we should pursue them as well, but to think that we can get meaningful transit expansion without paying for it simply means that you're an inhabitant of Naive.
On the food truck topic. I use to be of the opinion to opening it up. I'd love to see hundreds of trucks around the city. But after seeing the prices these trucks are charging... "trucks' low overheads" is definitely not reflecting in prices.
But get what you can get. Would like to see more family run trucks.
We could pay down the city's debt (you know the one that went up 50% under David Miller) and used the reduced interest payments to pay for infrastructure improvements. Private sector partnerships are a possibility. Union station had a deal in place that was quashed the previous regime because it wasn't going to be done by his union buddies.
There are opportunities for sponsorship to fund public works. Extra fees to develope along new transit lines is reasonable.
You must be a Toronto Sun reader - just read the headline and ignore the story. All they really said was that they support Transit City and that they're not touching OneCity. One City is a pipe dream right now - a conversation starter, nothing more, and McGuinty just doesn't want to touch another Toronto transit file for a while if he can help it, given what a clusterf**k Transit City almost became.
Quite frankly, I don't blame him - until our City Council and in particular, our so-called Mayor and his allies, are ready to have a grown-up conversation about Transit development in this City, I don't see why the Province should even bother getting involved. He' got enough on his plate without dealing with our Council's childish antics.
Hey, I'm a homeowner, who owns a car and takes transit every day. I have no burning desire to pay more taxes than I have to, but I also know that its just not realistic to think that major transit improvement is going to happen on its own, and the private sector is not coming to our rescue. Its time to stop living in Ford's fantasy-land and get real about what its going to take.